Frequently Asked Questions.
01
02
Smart House Calls is a telemedicine solution. So... what IS "telemedicine"?
Telemedicine, also known as telehealth, is the providing of health care, health information, and health education across a distance, using secure telecommunications technology. It allows Healthcare Professionals to assess, diagnose and treat patients without requiring both the patient and the Healthcare Professional to be physically located in the same place. The distance can be as close as across a street or as far away as other cities, states, or continents.
Is telemedicine expensive?
The Smart House Calls telemedicine system was developed to allow you to finally take advantage of telemedicine's opportunities without the exorbitant costs associated with hardware and software. We remove the obstacles so you can concentrate on serving your patients and increasing your income from the first day.
We do this one of two ways:
-
If you are interested in working with one of our psychiatrists or other mental health providers, SHC will charge a flat percentage of the billing. So, if no one is being seen, you are paying nothing.
-
If you decide you want to develop your own telemedicine network with your physicians, we provide you with a telemedicine license, HIPAA compliance and software training, insurance billing codes, and 24/7 support for a very low monthly rate per physician or per facility.
03
04
05
Is special malpractice insurance required?
Many malpractice insurance companies will automatically cover your Smart House Calls as "telemedicine encounters", however some do not. It is your responsibility as a Healthcare Professional to verify that your coverage extends to telemedicine encounters. If your current policy does not offer coverage, you can purchase malpractice coverage through Smart House Calls that will add onto your current coverage and cover all of your telemedicine encounters. If you are interested in purchasing coverage through Smart House Calls please submit your information, and a Smart House Calls representative will contact you within one business day.
Has any research been done on Telemedicine?
Understandably, some Healthcare Professionals are initially skeptical about the quality of care given or received during a Smart House Call virtual exam. You will be pleased to know that a large body of research over the past 20 years is quite positive. To date, these are some of the salient findings:
- 80% of families stated telemedicine prevented an ER visit
- 98% of telemedicine exams required no in-person follow-up
- 92% of patients state they would use telemedicine again
- Telemedicine physicians felt confident they identified the patients' real concerns, got the pertinent exam information, and appropriately treated the patients' problems
- Telemedicine greatly improves diabetic care over traditional care
Do Managed Care companies provide reimbursement for it?
Yes they do! Medicare pays for telemedicine in all 50 states. In 44 states medicaid will reimburse for telemedicine/telepsychiatry services. In 20 states, legislatures have passed laws that require private insurance companies to pay for telemedicine services at the same rate as face-to-face visits. That said, we find that many insurance companies are covering telemedicine services in the states where they are not required. These companies understand the physician shortage problems and understand that when there are barriers to specialist and psychiatric care, patients become sicker and their customers are being ill served. Some of these companies are even partnering with telemedicine companies to provide their customers more timely access in this shortage of clinicians.
06
What is the process for working with Smart House Calls?
Simply fill out the contact form and one of our service executives will contact you within 24 hours. If you decide that Smart House Calls is indeed the telemedicine partner you have been looking for, our executive team will begin the process of linking your organization with high quality psychiatrists licensed in your state. Once you have chosen the psychiatrist your organization is excited to work with, we will finalize the contracts, educate your staff on telemedicine procedures, train on the Smart House Calls software, and train on Telemedicine HIPAA compliance.
07
How does Smart House Calls choose their psychiatrists?
We have a large number of psychiatrists that are looking to connect with organizations like yours which allows us to be decerning while also being able to find the perfect fit for your organizations. We also do a thorough federal and state background checks in addition to verifying licensure and good standing with the medical board in your state or states.
After all of that, if you do not like the clinician either before or after they begin work, we will find you another that fits perfectly. That's right, you no longer have to deal with are remove clinicians who just do not fit with your staff or organizational perspectives. Smart House Calls will take care of the hassles and find the psychiatrist that excites your organization.